Taking Action at your Site
At the end of 2008, teachers were asked to share the actions they had taken with their classes as a result of water quality monitoring. Below are some of the great actions taken at water monitoring sites, schools and around the home in 2008.
Water monitoring site:
- Animal surveys.
- Litter clean-up.
- Planting trees and natives bushes.
- Weeding.
- Invertebrate and vertebrate studies.
- Vegetation surveys
- Made a promotional piece of art for public display to educate the community about the ways to care for the river.
At School:
Curriculum
- Curriculum connections – SOSE and Science.
- SOSE Topic on Desertification - involved in play “The Mighty Murray Musical”.
- For Art – looked at the perspective of a wetland scene and detailed drawings of native flora on site (no picking was allowed).
- Science study of Lake Playford environment.
- Data was used by year 12 students for their Community Studies projects.
Water
- Conserving water through catchment bowls under the tap in the sink.
- Students have set up a group that check taps and toilets – if maintenance is needed they advise front office staff. They also inform classes about water saving in school.
- Washing glue and paintbrushes in a bucket.
Waste
- Recycling.
- We did an audit (our unit) on rubbish (particularly plastics) around the school which would eventually go into stormwater system – students much more aware of the issue.
- Collecting litter from schoolyard and grounds.
Biodiversity
- Visited Wittunga Botanic Gardens as part of World Environment Day celebrations with our buddy class.
- Maintaining a school native garden and vegie garden to utilise water effectively and prevent run-off into stormwater systems.
- Tree planing – cutting down pest species of trees.
Pollution Prevention
- Reducing paint poured down sinks.
- Water Quality testing when incidents occur in local community e.g. “bad smells in water”, “colouration”, “bubbles”.
- Collecting leaf litter from the street regularly.
- Gutter Guardians program - rake up autumn leaf litter from gutters.
Other
- School newsletter environmental awareness articles which include observations made at the testing site.
- Eco-warriors Club makes suggestions and speak at assemblies.
- The school has an eco-plan.
At Home:
- Water conservation e.g. using greywater on garden.
- Water catchments/home profile.
- Conserving water – tubs in shower alcoves which is used to water the garden.
- Reminding parents to reuse, recycle and fix taps etc.
- Sweep gutters, recycle, reuse water, less time in showers.
- Water study in Term 2 – education of families regarding ways to conserve/reduce water use. Ways to stop pollution of stormwater, study of the dire situation of Murray River.
- The environmental studies program that the students participate highlights “local action”.
- Rainwater capture and frog pond construction at school and home.
Teachers also provided some ideas for what they would like to do as part of the Snapshots program in 2009:
- "I would like to keep a photographic record of our site throughout the year".
- "We will run some modules in Certificate III in Lab Skills. We are thinking of using Waterwatch testing as the basis of some modules e.g. perform basic tests and record and present data".
- "Report water quality results in our schools newsletter and local messenger papers (1st week of each month schools info)".
- "Involve more students".
See our 'Taking Action as a result of water monitoring' sheet for more information.